Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Department of Posts issued
orders to keep in abeyance the orders on abolition of posts for the years 2005,
2006, 2007 & 2008.

The All India Unions of AIPEU Postman & MSE/Gr.D, AIPEU GDS (NFPE) & NUPE P-IV filed a case in Principle CAT, Delhi (during May 2012) praying not to abolish the vacant posts (DR) of Postman & Gr.D (MTS) of the years 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008. The Pr. CAT issued stay orders (in OA No.1736/2013) on the issue and now the Department of Posts issued orders to all Chief Postmasters General to keep the orders in abeyance on abolition of posts in the circles.

By the time this issue of “Postal Crusader” reaches your hand, an eventful year 2013 will be over and a new year 2014 is born. From our experience in the past, especially during the last year, we can definitely say that the year 2014 shall be an year of struggle for betterment of the living conditions of the common people of our country and the toiling masses including the Central Government Employees & Postal employees.

General election to the Parliament is scheduled to be held in the year 2014. The ruling class and also the corporate media have started their campaign, well in advance, in support of those who are ready to carry forward the rigorous implementation of neo-liberal globalisation policies. We have witnessed that when it comes to policy of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, both UPA and NDA Government are two sides of the same coin. Concerted efforts are being made by the corporate media to relegate the issues raised by the working class in February 20,21 All India Joint Strike and 2013 December 12th massive Parliament March to the background. We should identify our friends and foes from our own experience and shall frontload the working class issues and conduct intensive campaign against those who are in favour of neo-liberal policies and also in support of those who are opposing the anti-people, anti-labour policies of the ruling class. Remember, in democracy ballot is more powerful than bullet. Let us use this weapon prudently and discreetly and move forward in our struggle by further strengthening those forces who are continuously fighting against this neo-liberal policies and for the cause of working class.

Eventhough the Government has announced constitution of 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC), the terms of reference and appointment of chairperson etc. are yet to be finalised. The unanimous proposal on terms of reference submitted by the staff side includes date of effect from 01-01-2014, DA merger, Interim relief, inclusion of GDS, statutory pension to those employed after 01-01-2004, minimum wage as per 15th ILC formula, settlement of anomalies and cashless, hassle free medical facilities. Now the ball is in the court of Government. In case the Government deliberately delay the appointment of CPC or reject the terms of reference submitted by the staff side, confrontation shall become inevitable.

Postal employees have put up stiffest resistance to the Government’s policy, to privatise the Postal sesrvices by amending Indian Postoffice Act 1898 for granting licence to private couriers, to close down 9797 departmental post offices, to merge about 300 RMS sorting offices and also to continue the ban on recruitment. Postal department is the only department where mass-scale recruitment and promotion through departmental examinations has taken place. The united struggle under the banner of JCA has prevented the Government to a great extent from implementing the neo-liberal policies in the Postal Sector.

Regarding 7th CPC, Postal employees have every right to get a better deal from Pay Commission and Government. The pay scales of each category of Postal and RMS employees including Gramin Dak Sevaks should be upgraded taking into consideration the fact that the cadre of PA, SA, Postmen, Mail guard, MTS exchanging mails and clearing letter boxes, Gramin Dak Sevaks are all unique to the Postal Department. Further IT modernisation project will be rolled out in full swing in 2014 and the skill of the postal employees including GDS in dealing with high technology will be further enhanced. Due to non-creation of additional posts in commensurate with the increase in workload due to introduction of new schemes and procedures and also due to abnormal delay in filling up of vacant posts, the workload of the Postal and RMS employees have increased manifold and this factor of extra-productivity should be taken into account while deciding the pay scales of postal and RMS employees including GDS.

Three lakhs Gramin Dak Sevaks and Casual, Part-time, Contingent employees are the worst sufferers of the Postal department. NFPE & FNPO has already decided to go for indefinite strike, if the Government rejects our demand for inclusion of GDS in the ambit of 7th CPC and revision of wages and regularisation of casual labourers.

NFPE & AIPEU-GDS (NFPE) had filed a writ petition in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India praying for implementation of the 1977 Supreme Court judgement declaring GDS as civil servants and grant of all benefits of departmental employees to GDS. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has ordered the Delhi High Court to consider and decide the case and the writ petition is accordingly transferred to Delhi High Court. Thus the final legal battle for departmentalisation of GDS has begun and 2014 will be a turning point in the history of GDS

.

In short, 2014 is going to be an year of struggle and advancement of the working class of India and also the Central Government employees including Postal, RMS & GDS employees. Let us welcome the new year with a pledge to continue our fight for a better tomorrow.

Monday, December 30, 2013

All India Postal Employees Union – Postman & MSE /Gr.D is conducting its 25th All India Conference at Cuttack from yesterday the 29.12.2013. The photographs of first day AIC has been exhibited already in our website regarding the colourful rally and open session that was inaugurated by the veteran parliamentarian Comrade Basudev Acharya and addressed by big leaders from various organisations including central trade unions. High level officers including the Chief PMG Odisha Circle Shri. S.J.Tilak De; PMG Berhampur Shri.P.K.Bisoi addressed the open session. Important leaders who addressed the open session were Comrades M.Krishnan SG NFPE; Janardhan Pati CITU Vice President; R.N.Mallik Shramik Ekta; and Ishwar Singh Dabas General Secretary of P4 Union. At the end of the rally and before the commencement of the open session flags were hoisted by leaders and martyrs column was respected by all and folk songs were presented by the cultural troup.

The norms for delivery of Speed Post articles have in the past been revised from time to time and are also contained in the Citizen’s Charter of the Department. The existing delivery norms for Speed Post are follows:

(a) Local (within municipal limits) : 2 days

(b) Between one to another metro city (included the six metro cities i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) and limited to Municipal limits of these cities: 2 days

(c) Rest of the country: 4 to 6 days.

2. The norms mentioned above are further qualified by stating that they exclude the day of posting, Sundays and Holidays that they denote maximum time and apply only to the articles booked before the cut-off time.

3. The matter relating to revision of the existing norms for delivery of Speed Post articles was under consideration of this Directorate, and the following has been decided in this regard:

(a) New delivery (transit) norms have been worked out on a city-to-city basis for 87 cities where Speed Post Sorting Hubs are located (excluding 1 CBPO & 2 CBPO). The new delivery norms are being circulated to all concerned by e-mail along with this O.M. The same may be downloaded.

(b) The new norms for a pair of cities have been prescribed in terms of a range. For example,

the delivery norms between Mumbai and Pune is “1 to 2 days, i.e. D+1 to D+2 where “D” is the day of booking.

(c) The new norms would be restricted to the municipal limits of a city (covering only TD PIN codes) under reference.

4. The new delivery norms for Speed Post would be subject to the conditions that:

* They are limited to 87 cities, and municipal limit within these cities,

* They do not apply to the articles booked after the cut-off time on a day(normally) taken as 3 or 4 pm for booking counters at post offices or as decided by the Circle concerned) and an extra day may be added in such cases,

* The delivery norms do not include Sundays and holidays,

* Delay occurring due to curfew, bandh or strike in a particular city mayadversely affect delivery norms,

* Delay occurring due to cancellation of flights/trains/buses/other means of transport for carriage of mail or off-load / non-carriage of mail by the carriers due to any reason is beyond the control of the Department, and therefore, the same may adversely affect delivery norms.

* Beyond the cities mentioned under the delivery norms document, extra days may be required which would vary from place to place..

5. Circles may give wide publicity to the new norms among the public and display the norms in the shape of a matrix of prominent/frequently-used destinations at the post office as display of entire matrix perhaps may not be possible.

6. The new delivery norms would also be placed on India Post website in a user-friendly format so that a user could easily find delivery/transit norms between a pair of cities. In the interim, a PDF version of the document is being uploaded on the Departmental website.

7. This O.M. supercedes all previous instructions on Speed Post Delivery Norms issued by this Directorate/Business Development Directorate.

CHENNAI: 27.12.2013. Can an employee be punished twice for the same offence? No, said the Chennai bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Wednesday quashing an order of the ministry of communications and IT to initiate fresh proceedings against a retired assistant postmaster who had undergone punishment for his supervisory lapses.

The matter pertains to V Muthukannu, sub-postmaster in Karur division, who was accused of irregular closure of a recurring deposit and non-account of deposits. In his submissions to the tribunal, Muthukannu said in March 2010, the superintendent of post offices ordered recovery of Rs 8,000 per month from his salary for the loss caused to the postal department. After seven months, it was increased to Rs 12,000. For his contributory negligence, he paid Rs 5.07 lakh to the department. Also, for a year, his salary was reduced and no increments were provided, said Muthukannu.

However, in April 2012, a month before his retirement, the member (personnel), department of posts, dropped the earlier concluded proceedings and initiated a fresh proceeding for the same lapses. He was also issued a memo stating his retirement benefits had been withheld. He asked the CAT to set aside the order for fresh proceedings.

In the counter, the department of post denied the averments and said Muthukannu was involved in a fraud to the tune of Rs 17.46 lakh at the Karur head post office. Fresh proceedings were initiated according to the rules and there was no question of "double jeopardy." Further, it was an exceptional case and had to be dealt with accordingly.

The bench comprising judicial member B Venkateshwara Rao and administrative member P Prabhakaran said, "Once the punishment imposed is undergone, no one can direct a fresh inquiry in the same set of charges."

The bench quashed the order for fresh proceedings and directed the department to pay all retrial benefits to Muthukannu.

THE BELOW DETAIL WAS SUBMITTED IN A WRITTEN REPLY IN THE PARLIAMENT BY THE MINISTER OF DOPT SHRI V.NARAYANASAMY ON 12TH DECEMBER 2013 TO A QUESTION REGARDING THE NUMBER OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES IS CONSTANTLY DECREASING DUE TO NON-FILLING UP OF VACANCIES FOR THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS...

The Minister said that the details of the number of posts sanctioned, filled and vacant of Regular Civilian Employees in Central Government & Union Territory Administrations as per the ‘Brochure on Pay and Allowances of Central Government Civilian Employees for 2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-12 brought out by the Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure), as on 1st March of the relevant year are as under:

As on

Number of sanctioned posts

Number of incumbents in position

Number of vacant posts

1.3.2010

3602295

3068359

533936

1.3.2011

3663529

3081938

581591

1.3.2012

3684543

3084530

600013

The Ministries/Departments are required to fill the vacancies as per Recruitment Rules and extant guidelines. This Department issues instructions from time to time to all Ministries/Departments to fill up the vacant posts on timely basis. The data in this regard is not centrally maintained.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Casual, Part Time, Contingent employees wage revision and Regularization—

HUNGER FAST in front of Directorate

Postal JCA decided to conduct HUNGER FAST in front of Dak Bhawan, New Delhi on 5th February 2014.

Secretary Generals of NFPE and FNPO and all General Secretaries of affiliated Associations/Unions will sit on HUNGER FAST in front of Directorate protesting against the abnormal delay and demanding immediate wage revision w.e.f. 01.01.2006 and also regularization.

All Central government employees will
soon be expected to communicate through the National Informatics Centre (NIC)
email ID, a union minister said on Monday adding that the government was
chalking out a plan in this regard.

Minister of State for Communications
Milind Deora told reporters here that his department is working on a new email
policy which will address this issue, among others.

“Once this is ready, then all
government officials will have to communicate only through NIC email id,” he
said.

“After this, the issue of cyber
security can be addressed on a single platform as NIC is taking care of
e-governance programmes of the Centre,” said Deora.

(a) whether the Supreme Court has upheld the decision of High Court and CAT for providing the benefit of Sixth Pay Commission to Government employees who retired before Ist January, 2006;

(b) whether it is a fact that Supreme Court in its judgement has given benefit w.e.f. January, 2006;

(c) whether the Ministry has implemented the judgement of Supreme Court in totality while giving benefit to those retirees w.e.f. January, 2006; and

(d) if so, details thereof and if not, reasons therefor?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE (SHRI V. NARAYANASAMY)

The orders for implementation of the decision taken by the Government on the recommendations of 6th CPC for revision for pension of past pensioners were issued vide this Department’s Office Memorandum(OM) dated 1.9.2008. The provisions of Para 4.2 of this OM were clarified vide this Department’s letter dated 3.10.2008.

The Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi in its order dated 1.11.2011 observed that by the OM dated 3.10.2008 the original orders of 1.9.2008 have been modified. Hon’ble CAT directed that the past pensioners may be granted, w.e.f. 1.1.2006, a minimum pension @ 50% of the minimum pay corresponding to the pre-revised pay scale with reference to the fitment table applicable for revision of pay of serving employees.

Writ Petitions were filed in the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi challenging the above mentioned order.

In its order dated 29.4.2013, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court has upheld the order dated 1.11.2011. After considering the order of Hon’ble High Court of Delhi and various representations received in this regard, Special Leave Petition was filed by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.

Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare filed an SLP in the Hon’ble Supreme Court against this order. This SLP came up for hearing on 29.7.2013 and was dismissed and the Review Petition was also dismissed.

Union of India has also filed SLP against the order dated 29.4.2013 in Writ Petitions No.2348/2012, 2349/2012 and 2350/2012 in the Hon’ble Supreme Court which came up for hearing on 19.11.2013. The Hon’ble Supreme Court directed to list the SLP alongwith CA No.8875-8876 of 2011 filed by Ministry of Defence and is now listed for hearing on 4.2.2014. The matter is therefore sub-judice.